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After she graduated from high school, Delia moved to New York to attend Barnard College.

After that, she became an events planner.

She got married when she was 25 years old and moved to Providence, Rhode Island.

She says she was unhappy.

I think in

my 20s, I didn't really understand that, you know, life had a finite quality to it because I was obviously throwing mine away.

And when I got to about 27 or 28, I thought, am I going to be something? Am I going to do something? And I knew then I really didn't know I wanted to be a writer.

My mother, all she wanted her daughters to be were writers.

So when I was up in Providence, I was...

This is really ridiculous.

I had a crochet business with my friend Lori.

And, I mean, obviously I was not going to spend my life crocheting things for department stores.

So I... was in New York one day at a party, and I said to an editor at Simon & Schuster, I don't know what he was doing at the party, I don't know what I was doing there, but I said, you know, I have an idea for a book.

I'd like to write a book about crocheting.

And he said, like, right there, he said, oh, I'll buy that.

Delia and her friend Lori published their book, The Adventurous Crocheter, in 1972.

And I started to think when I was doing this, you know, I want to be a writer and I really, really want to be a writer.

And I said it out loud to my first husband.

And he said, I don't want you to be a writer.

And I said, why? And he said, suppose you become famous.

I don't want you to become famous.

And of course, I

knew I had to leave him.

That seems bad.

Yeah.

After she graduated from high school, Delia moved to New York to attend Barnard College.

After that, she became an events planner.

She got married when she was 25 years old and moved to Providence, Rhode Island.

She says she was unhappy.

I think in

my 20s, I didn't really understand that, you know, life had a finite quality to it because I was obviously throwing mine away.

And when I got to about 27 or 28, I thought, am I going to be something? Am I going to do something? And I knew then I really didn't know I wanted to be a writer.

My mother, all she wanted her daughters to be were writers.

So when I was up in Providence, I was...

This is really ridiculous.

I had a crochet business with my friend Lori.

And, I mean, obviously I was not going to spend my life crocheting things for department stores.

So I... was in New York one day at a party, and I said to an editor at Simon & Schuster, I don't know what he was doing at the party, I don't know what I was doing there, but I said, you know, I have an idea for a book.

I'd like to write a book about crocheting.

And he said, like, right there, he said, oh, I'll buy that.

Delia and her friend Lori published their book, The Adventurous Crocheter, in 1972.

And I started to think when I was doing this, you know, I want to be a writer and I really, really want to be a writer.

And I said it out loud to my first husband.

And he said, I don't want you to be a writer.

And I said, why? And he said, suppose you become famous.

I don't want you to become famous.

And of course, I

knew I had to leave him.

That seems bad.

Yeah.